Leo Varadkar has raised the dreaded prospect of troops at the border in the wake of a hard Brexit.

In comments on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Taoiseach said we could see the return of “people in uniforms,” including possibly the army.

As revealed by the Irish Mirror discussions have also been held by Garda top brass to come up with a plan to send officers to the frontier.

Mr Varadkar stressed again, as he has all along, we are not preparing for the return of a hard border.

He also lashed out at the UK Government and the hard Brexiteers who he says keep turning to us for solutions when they should be offering them. Mr Varadkar said about the border : “It would involve customs posts.

Read More

The insider said: “There have been meetings and discussions, despite what is being said officially – it is Government strategy to play down the efforts being made, not the gardai.

“The strategy could be to siphon off gardai from regular policing duties and send them up also there is mention of hundreds of new recruits being sent to the border. Regardless, it will cost a fortune and one of the ways they will combat the cost is to try and find a way no to pay allowances.”

It was put to Mr Varadkar by the Bloomberg interviewer there could be technological solutions introduced instead.

He replied: “They don’t exist and nobody has been able to show them to me.